Stanford CIS

Should robots have human rights? Act now to regulate killer machines before they multiply and demand the right to vote, warns legal expert

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"A legal expert has warned that the laws that govern robotics are playing catch-up to the technology and need to be updated in case robots 'wake up' and demand rights.

He also argues that artificial intelligence has come of age, and that we should begin tackling these problems before they arise, as robots increasingly blur the line between person and machine.

'Robotics combines, for the first time, the promiscuity of data with the capacity to do physical harm,' Ryan Calo, from the University of Washington’s School of Law, wrote in his paper on the subject.

'Robotic systems accomplish tasks in ways that cannot be anticipated in advance; and robots increasingly blur the line between person and instrument.' "